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More like, Badass. That fucker can hit a bullseye with his fucking foot. I can't do that shit with hands, much less my foot. How much determination does that take? Do you think that's in you? Holy shit.

Statistically, that's a lie though. Not everyone is equal, and even years of hard work and dedication will not make up for the obstacles some encounter. I really hate inspirational optimism. It blames lack of success directly on a single person for not trying hard enough, but the world doesn't work like that.

i've always wondered what you have to do to convince the official to turn up

like maybe we've missed out on some amazing records because guiness decided they weren't going to watch a guy do like 60 attempts to hit the target. or some people have an advantage because the official is their friend and he'll chill for a whole afternoon watching archery

Many records don't need an official present, but simply have the event recorded as Guinness describes. If you're interested in breaking a record, let them know -- they'll give you the information on how to ensure your record is recorded correctly to qualify.

I know someone who arranged an official Guinness world record and it is EXPENSIVE. You have to pay to fly out the official, put them up, and pay them a non-trivial day rate. Plus it all has to be booked way in advance as there's only so many officials.

What was cool was it turns out everyone who works for Guinness world records gets a chance to be an official - there's no-one who's sole job is just officiating record attempts so you might work there as a marketing assistant or whatever and get allocated some cool record to fly off and check out. Seemed like a great place to work.

Actually, as a former archer, he might have the advantage. Your hands can be unstable and have lots of variance, but using your upper body/shoulder to pull with a teeth trigger release is easier to train to be consistent, and consistency = accuracy.

So it is still inherently unequal? This is the thing I've never understood about the paralympics. Not to belittle their efforts, but it kind of just seems like a show put on to make them feel better and to make us go "awwww"

Of course, an able bodied person is more than capable of replicating his technique if they desired. I can't speak for the officials, but if you were an archer using a chest apparatus, I'd still be impressed.

AFAIK there is no rule against having a trigger like this on an able bodied archer, though the seat is probably not allowed. The whole V shape of his body between the bow grip and trigger looks like it would be difficult to keep consistent, compered to a regular archers form.

There are actually a few rules he would be breaking in the regular Olympics. Number one, he's using a compound bow (see the cams on either end). These bows have a rollover point when drawing back that makes it easier to hold the weight at full draw, in addition to allowing much more power behind the shot. Number two is that trigger releases aren't allowed.

I've always thought there needs to be some kinda divisions in the paralympics. I was watching the swimming and there's like a guy missing a foot against a bloke with no arms. Although amazingly enough that guy didn't actually lose.

There are a bunch of divisions in the paralympics, swimming has quite a lot of them, actually. Sometimes it's kind of like, what? How is this guy and that guy against each other? But I guess they do take that stuff very seriously so presumably there is a logic to the classifications even when it's not obvious to us viewers.

Matt Stutzman (USA) won Silver. No adaptive alterations to his equipment. He was interviewed on NPR last week ... He emphasize he does not use adaptive equipment at home or for driving his car. He also holds Guiness World record for longest most accurate bow shot. Pretty fewking kewl.

You MOTHERFUCKER. That is so mean. My brother is a retard AND a damn fine athlete competing in the 5 meter relay in the Special Olympics. Have you competed at top level in anything besides reposting hatred?

Much respect for your brother, but calm down. The OP most likely didn't actually make this picture, first of all, so there's no point in raging at him. Secondly, it's a joke, not hatred. Nobody is going to hate on your brother for anything (here, at least) so there's no reason to get up in arms about it all. You're free to find it not funny (I don't really either), but to say it's completely humorless is to fight a useless battle.

Edit: I just don't understand why this comic gets posted in every single thread about Paralympic archers. There's a post about a person overcoming a disability to do something extraordinary…so you respond to it with a comic shitting on a different group overcoming a disability to do something extraordinary.

As an archer you generally want as little contact area between you hand/foot and bow to minimize the possibility of your hand/foot torquing/ twisting the bow. So the standard compound bow grip (or lack thereof) is probably fine

Someone in another comment said he flexes his jaw. This is probably the case because modern bow releases (picture) can be quite sensitive...it's essentially an extremely light trigger; you touch the switch and it releases the arrow. I've actually fired my arrow off into the sunset before on accident, because my thumb brushed the release while I was drawing back.

They use that as an "anchor point", generally an archer will use two to three anchor points depending on what type of equipment they are using. This helps to add a point of reference and ensure consistency, where as if anchor points aren't used the archer's release hand is allowed to "float" to different positions which will change the line of sight and affect the point of impact of the arrow.
TL;DR: It is a point of reference.

Just because it's made of other materials doesn't mean it's a compound bow. Compound bows have a pulley system that reduces the holding weight. The olympic bows are all recurves which have tips that curve back towards the front of the bow.

my mom was a coach for the Israeli paralympic team in the late 90s, the entire team consisted of wheelchaired guys with no other disabilities. She was actually surprised that they all preferred to do compound even though they were much stronger than their non-handicapped counterparts since their wheelchairs were unpowered.

(to those wondering why it matters, you only have a couple of seconds to aim with a recurve before you get really fatigued, while with a compound you can hold it for a long long time once you overcome the initial resistance)

It's all about skill and this guy has it and I am truly impressed beyond words. Call me a old fashioned purist but what ever happened to using a simple longbow or recurve? It's like people who think they can improve their putting if the putter is made of a special metal alloy or has a fancy shape.

My dad is reporter and interviewed him. He said that he was a wonderful guy and his skills were absolutely amazing. He also learned that the guy does everything normal people would like DRIVING with his feet. This guy is incredible.

He came out and spoke to other people with various handicaps at a handicap hunt my dad and his friend put on for about 25 people of all ages. He told some hilarious stories and he eats with his feet better than most people can with their two hands. I'm talking the guy can move a fork to various positions with his toes and he can take his socks off and put them back on with one foot. Really nice dude and a pretty wicked role model.

Yup. Each sport has different categories that group people together based upon 1)their disability and 2)the severity of it. There's strict guidelines at physical examinations that determine which categories the athlete get placed in and it's different for each sport.

Mind blown. I hung out with this guy when I was 14 and he was 12. His parents were visiting my grandparents and we were all amazed how he could eat with his feet. :) He didn't let his handicap slow him down at ALL. I had heard that he was going to be in the Paralympics, but this is awesome!!! And before you ask, I have no proof. :) His dad was my brother's principal in school tho.

I'm a regular archer, have been for more than a decade. At the peak of my competitive years, I practiced a lot, put a lot into the sport. This photo is really humbling. Dat dedication! I'd love to meet him.

I explained part of it to another user. In the regular Olympics, they are restricted to using recurve bows and no trigger release. See the "pulleys" at either end of his bow? That's a compound bow. It makes it so you can draw a higher weight without getting fatigued.

As for the other archers in wheelchairs, I'm not sure. I don't know if they are using recurves or compound bows. And I don't know if there's a rule against sitting down. One of the South Koreans in the Olympics was legally blind (he could see shapes), but because he could use all the legal equipment, he was allowed to compete.

Which thing are we talking about? The rod that hangs off the front? It's the stabilizer. It absorbs some of the vibrations of releasing the drawstring so it doesn't transfer to the arrow and lead it off course.

i have a question about the paralympics. if people with different types of disabilities are competing with each other, doesnt it end up being the least seriously disabled person who always wins? so don't the medals end up measuring someone's level of disability, rather than their talent or preparation?

I don't know about archery specifically, but the events are generally divided in a bunch of different categories, so people are usually only competing against athletes with similar disabilities to their own. I suppose you can only divide them so much, but it's supposed to be fairly fair, and it seems to be taken pretty seriously (there was controversy this time around, for example, when after an upset in the Men's 200M T44 accusations were being thrown around that the winner shouldn't have been allowed to have blades of that length...) Team sports have their own ways of trying to keep things balanced.

That's Matt Stutzman, and he's actually from my hometown. I don't know him personally, but living in a small town, you can't help but feel proud for one of your own. During the Paralympics pretty much every storefront and office had signs up cheering him on.

He was ranked first throughout most of the prelims, I believe, and he ended up with silver.

That's bloody impressive. What isn't so impressive is archery in the main Olympics; they use bows that are strapped to their wrists, weigh next to nothing, have scopes and sights on them and have a minuscule draw-weight. It would be so much more impressive if they actually used proper bows.

Wait, what? By rule, they use recurves in the regular Olympics instead of compound bows. Recurves are arguably more difficult to fire because they don't have a rollover point and at full draw you are holding the full weight (hence why they draw weights are lighter, someone who uses a 50 lb compound bow may only be able to handle a 30 lb recurve). Also you can see in this picture that Stutzman is using a sight and stabilizer, just like the other archers.

I was comparing modern bows to traditional bows; the materials used, the lack of gadgets added to it for assistance. I suppose all the sights and stabilisers just take some of the skill out of it for me. Indeed he is, I was just saying how impressive it was seeing someone loose an arrow like that!

Well at 70 meters, the sights (no zoom as far as I know, haven't looked into this rule in depth) and stabilizer are almost necessary. Shooting barebow at that range would be phenomenal, but you would see a lot of shots hit by luck alone, while most miss by a lot.

A few years back when I was living in Iowa City I saw this guy at an indoor range in town. When I saw him walking around I thought he was just cold and had his arms inside his shirt. Then like after an hour he was still like that, and I knew something was up. He seemed really into archery and was talking to his buddy about it like 2 pros would talk about anything. I thought "well he must have been in an accident or something" and lost the ability to shoot. That was when I saw his buddy help him put some of his gear on (the shoulder release). I was thinking to myself "no fucking way this guy is going to shoot a bow". He gets a chair and sits down and does this maneuver with his leg. Blew my fucking mind. I sat an watched him for a good hour or so - very inspiring.

fuck the Olympics, it's the Paralympics that we should be celebrating instead. these men and women are the true heroes. they are the shining example of the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.

The Olympics is about who can run the fastest, jump the highest, or throw throw a pointy stick the farthest. The Olympics is about pushing the boundaries of human performance in some standardized set of activities.

The Paralympics, on the other hand, seems to be about disabled people adapting, overcoming some disadvantage, to perform quite well in some activity. Maybe even astonishingly well.

I don't feel that competitors in either event are heroes. If one guy with no arms learns to shoot an arrow more accurately than some other guy with no legs, I am impressed, and I applaud him. I'm sure his story is a tear-jerker, but has he achieved hero status? Has he demonstrated more courage and perseverance than an Olympic athlete, or anybody else that dedicates their life to some other pursuit?

Has he demonstrated more courage and perseverance than an Olympic athlete, or anybody else that dedicates their life to some other pursuit?

Yes, he has. Not that I agree with OP on 'Fuck the Olypmics' but it really does take a ridiculous amount of character to--not only not get defeated by your injury or disability and just laze in a wheelchair somewhere-- But then push yourself beyond what normal health people are capable of.

It's one of those things where I could try to explain it to you, but it's not really going to sway you if you lack the capacity to truly empathize with how horrifically difficult what they do is. They are absolutely amazing and I find them to be better examples of human capacity than just the normal Olympics.

That said I didn't watch either Olympics. I just wish the media cared about the Para.

Ya, but you are comparing that to someone who is the fastest runner in the world. Who's to say whats harder, a lot of people run but their is only one fastest runner in the world. So saying one is harder then the other is a stretch. As evidence that guy with arms has been doing archery for 3 years, I guarantee that Usain Bolt has worked harder at his sport.

Worked harder but had to over come and deal with less. 3 years with no arms is a multiplier of many many more years. Every day waking up feeling sick and weak, having to expend 4 or 5 times as much energy in a day than a normal person. Usain Bolt has worked hard, but he absolutely hasn't had to deal with anything close to the challenge a disabled person has to.

3 years of being disabled and learning to shoot archery or working your entire life to become the one and only fastest man on the planet, not even on the same orbit. A lot of people overcome disabilities in a variety of ways but comparing 3 years to a lifetime of work is just silly.

Except for the release, which appears to just have a cheek trigger and tied around his chest, everything actually looks pretty stock. He's shooting a target version of some mathews bow without any noticeable mods.

I sincerely hope that that in no way could it be construed that as I read this very post I also happened to be lying in bed hoisting a packed marijuana pipe to my mouth for the fifth time in the past five minutes that I am in no way intending this as a gesture of anything shot of utter amazment and respect towards the person or persons depicted in this photo. Thank you.

Another one of those things I dont get about people with disabilities.

"I have no arms, so im gonna become a professional archer!" ..what?

If I had no arms, id take up a sport id have a little more affinity to, like soccer or hackysack or something. Its like, "Hey ive gone blind, time to start playing videogames". I guess it is all about feeling better about themselves, like "I can still do it" or something?